Cycling History

Novembre 1941. L'Allemagne est sur le point de gagner la guerre. L'armée du Troisième Reich est aux portes de Moscou. Pour Himmler, le chef des SS, la victoire sera définitive s'il parvient à s'emparer d'une swastika sacrée disparue en Europe. Pour Churchill, il faut absolument retrouver cette relique avant les nazis. Chacun compte sur Tristan Marcas, agent double au passé obscur. Au cœur de cette guerre occulte entre les forces du Bien et du Mal, Laure, la résistante française, et Erika, l'archéologue allemande, vont s'affronter dans une lutte sans merci.

2019 had a stunning surprise winner in 22-year-old Egan Bernal, the youngest rider to wear the race-leader’s Yellow Jersey in Paris since that jersey was first awarded in 1919, and the third-youngest rider ever to have won the Tour de France.

Today, almost every nation on Earth is teetering on the brink of a societal meltdown as it finds itself in the midst of a sociopolitical upheaval, the like of which has not hitherto been witnessed in our lifetime. Yet, hardly anyone realizes that, like a winter that returns every year, such a concerted turmoil across the globe is also periodic due to what I have dubbed the "oqual cycle".

This turbulence is a part of the churning process taking us toward a New Golden Age—a period of peace and love, of righteousness and truth. The future age is where the cosmic intelligence will be present on Earth, guide everyone, and radiate through all. This kingdom of the Golden Age is aptly called the Light Age, and humanity is on the doorstep of this divine period! This is Vedic wisdom at its best and the essence of the teachings of the Yuga Cycles.

The Tour de France is the greatest bike race in the world, but it began as a humble promotional gimmick for a floundering newspaper. More than 100 years later, the Tour still captivates the world and is broadcast to over 180 countries. How did a few men looking for some way to save their struggling business become masters of a giant, successful enterprise? Les Woodland tells the inside story of the Tour de France through the prism of the men who started it, and those who now run it.

Step into a twisty, time-bending mystery where small-town secrets collide with supernatural intrigue! Quinn Harper never asked to see auras, but when glowing colors start swirling around people in Pine Harbor, she realizes her sleepy town is anything but ordinary. A creepy new teacher, a shadowy diver appearing in the mist, and a lighthouse that seems to reset reality—something isn’t right. As Quinn unravels the town’s hidden past, she discovers that Pine Harbor is trapped in a time loop, orchestrated by an ancient entity that feeds on sorrow. With the help of her sharp-witted ...

Professional cycling has been around for more than 100 years, more than enough time for nearly anything imaginable to have happened. Whether it's the Tour de France racer who thought the worst thing that could happen to him was being forced to wear the Yellow Jersey, or the communist team director who insisted, on a whim, that a rider have a toe amputated or the fit of jealousy that started the Giro d'Italia, the sport has an endless supply of examples of human folly.

In 1902, William Bulfin embarked on a cycling tour of Ireland, his musings along the way offering a fascinating glimpse into early 20th-century Ireland during a time of significant social change. Based on a series of articles originally published in nationalist newspapers, Bulfin’s narrative is rich with encounters that reveal the character of the Irish people and their connection to the land. He reflects on sacred historical sites such as Tara and Vinegar Hill, agricultural practices, and the folklore that defines Ireland’s cultural heritage. As he traverses the countryside, Bulfin’s...

The Giro d'Italia is one of the world's most important and popular bicycle races, yet there is almost no information in English about this magical Italian race's rich past. With The Story of the Giro d'Italia, the fabulous history of Italy's national tour is at last available. Volume One took the story of the Giro from its origin as a desperate promotional gamble by a nearly broke newspaper to Eddy Merckx's convincing 1970 victory.

In Polish: This is a story about the journey of two brothers who travelled through the largest river in the world on...bikes. But not ordinary bikes - they were "Amazonian” bikes. The story is as bodacious as the trip itself, which seemed like an unachievable madness, but turned out to be a great adventure and a valuable life lesson. For one of its heroes it was a dream come true, for another the last chance for salvation. The book is written by Piotr Chmieliński - the first person on Earth who sailed through the Amazon River in a kayak.

In 1887 a 21-year-old newspaperman named George Nellis (1865-1948) rode a bicycle from Herkimer, New York, to San Francisco in 72 days, surpassing the transcontinental bicycle record by several weeks. He averaged 50 miles a day pedaling a 52-inch, high-wheeled Columbia Expert "ordinary" bicycle with a tubular steel frame and hard rubber tires, and he lost 23 pounds in the process.

Dirty Feet is a fresh look at the now more than 100-year-old Tour de France. Les Woodland goes back to the blue-collar origins of the race when the father of the Tour, Henri Desgrange, was so bothered by the hygiene of his tough, beloved racers that at the end of each stage he would publish the names of the riders who did not wash after a day of racing on France’s mostly dirt and often muddy roads.

Deep down, Mark Cavendish thought he was finished. After illness, setbacks and clinical depression, the once fastest man in the world had been written off by most. And at the age of 36, even he believed his explosive cycling career would fade out with a whimper. The Manxman hadn't won a single Grand Tour stage in Italy, Spain or France since 2016. But then came his incredible resurrection at the 2021 Tour de France.

More than a century after they first entered the mainstream, bicycles and the culture around them are as accessible as ever - but for women, that progress has always been a struggle to achieve, and even now the culture remains overwhelmingly male. In Revolutions, author Hannah Ross highlights the stories of extraordinary women cyclists and all-female cycling groups over time and around the world, and demonstrates both the feminist power of cycling and its present-day issues.

When people look up into the night sky, the stars seem fixed and immutable, as unchanging as the darkness of space itself, but the truth is that stars are born, live, and die in a never-ending cycle of creation and annihilation. These cycles stretch over such vast spans of time that to short-lived humans, they seem to last forever. No one knows just how many stars there are, but their number is almost beyond comprehension.

Volume 1 of The Story of the Giro d'Italia tells of Italy's most celebrated riders: Costante Girardengo, the first campionissimo, or “Champion of Champions”; Alfredo Binda, who so dominated the Giro that one year he was paid by the organizers not to enter; Gino Bartali, who looked to become the dominating rider of his era; and Fausto Coppi, a fascinating personality and Bartali's great rival, who became not only Italy's, but the world's finest rider.

When more than 100 men or women go racing down a road, inches away from each other, in all weather, over all kinds of roads, the opportunity for a brilliant win or a terrible accident is always there. For more than a century, bicycle racers have sought glory, but have often found only misery. There can be only one winner, and even that triumph can be mixed with terrible loss. Fausto Coppi, coached by a blind man, set the World Hour Record in Milan during the war while the city was being shattered by bombs.

This telling of the 2019 Tour de France is a supplement to our two-volume The Story of the Tour de France. Volume one told the story of the Tour's origins and each edition of the race from 1903 through 1975. The 2019 edition was filled with surprises with young riders taking control of the race. Every day had something happen that confounded the experts. The winner did not emerge until Mother Nature surprised everyone in late July with snow and ice. With just three stages to go, mud, hail, and ice on an Alpine road changed everything.

Have you ever thought about the words that show up in the imaginary bubble over your head when you look in the mirror, or the mixed feelings of both horror and humor that come with the aging process? Life Cycling will take you on a spirited ride as Alayne shares her stories of motherhood, menopause, family, cancer, grief, and all of the moving parts that make up a woman’s life. With her distinctive and refreshingly forthright style, Alayne’s take on life coming at us will have you feeling like you are enjoying a glass of wine with her on the front porch on a sunny afternoon.

The Tour of Flanders is Belgium's most brutal day in the saddle. The bike-crazed Flemish don't just send riders over cobblestone roads. Nor are they content to break the racers' legs with nearly 20 steep hills. No, the worst of all cycling worlds meet in Flanders with narrow, vertical roads paved with slippery, dangerous cobbles. The hills are so steep they are called "muurs", or walls, and they come one after another, for hours, until the riders are shattered with exhaustion. The Tour of Flanders is so fiendishly difficult that the man who wins it earns everlasting fame.